The next big business trend that we are going to see, and that is happening already, is not only that aboriginal businesses are going to be stronger components of the corporate supply chain, but we are also going to see them as stronger proponents of equity positions and actual partners within resource projects.

JP Gladu of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business discusses native participation in resource industries...Read More

Posts tagged ‘Grizzly Discoveries Inc. (GZD)’

An historic British Columbia mining camp comes under additional scrutiny with new research released September 28. Geoscience BC’s latest report and 1:50,000-scale map focus on the province’s south-central Greenwood district, about 500 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Mining on the 800-square-kilometre area dates back to the late 1880s. Some 26 past-producers have given up more than 1.2 million ounces of gold and over 270,000 tonnes of copper, along with silver, lead and zinc, according to the independent non-profit organization. With a number of juniors currently working to find more mineralization, this research “should bolster the recent revival of mineral exploration activity in the Greenwood area,” said Geoscience BC VP of minerals and mining Bruce Madu.

Mining may one day return to the once-busy Greenwood camp.(Photo: Geoscience BC)

Among the active companies is Grizzly Discoveries TSXV:GZD, which holds about 72,840 hectares of Greenwood turf. Under a 75% earn-in, Kinross Gold TSX:K has been drilling for gold in the Midway area of Grizzly’s holdings. Grizzly has been conducting geophysics and surface exploration on its Robocop cobalt-copper-silver claims and plans drilling for three other Greenwood targets.

Just across the international border, Kinross operated the Kettle River-Buckhorn gold mine until last year, extracting 1.3 million ounces over nine years.

Another of Greenwood’s large landholders is Golden Dawn Minerals TSXV:GOM, which attributes 31 historic mines to its 15,400-hectare portfolio.

The Greenwood report might help illuminate other parts of B.C. as well. “This area could hold the key to a better understanding of mineral deposits that formed during key geological events that span almost 200 million years,” Madu added.

Working with First Nations, local communities, governments, academia and the resource sector, Geoscience BC opens its research to the public “with the aim of encouraging exploration, economic activity and informed land use decisions.” Most funding comes from the provincial government.

Grizzly Discoveries Inc TSXV:GZD announced the discovery of the Dayton gold-copper zone, a bulk-tonnage style low-grade gold-copper zone, at its Greenwood gold project in BC. Results from the first hole of the 2011 drill program revealed 0.25 g/t gold and 0.07% copper over 117 metres (including 0.43 g/t gold and 0.15% copper over 51 metres).

President Brian ‘Griz’ Testo tells ResourceClips.com, “In the last 100 years there’s been about $4 to $5 billion worth of copper, gold and silver taken from the 90-mile area between the US and Canada where Greenwood is located. All the claims at Greenwood were fractured until about 2006. When gold was at $280 to $300 an ounce, some prospectors got this big package together that totalled 235,000 acres. We did a deal with them in 2007, and checked [the claims] out and they were real, so we did a bigger deal with them in 2008. We got all of the ground—all 235,000 contiguous acres—in one package.

“We flew an HLEM [horizontal loop electromagnetic survey] and ended up with 500 targets in 2008. So we drilled a few of them in 2009 and hit some [mineralization]—nothing screaming, but it showed there was gold in the area. We did another little program in 2010 and hit some more and better stuff.

We’re zeroing in on the big one—Brian ‘Griz’ Testo

“When I raised $7 million in April, I gave my geologist $1.2 million, and I said, ‘Get some good drill targets for us for October, when we start drilling.’ We’ve had up to 23 guys on the ground doing ground sampling, MAG, the works, and we came up with these targets. The first target we drilled, the one released on Wednesday, hit 0.43 g/t gold, and 0.15% copper—which aren’t screaming numbers, but it was over 51 metres. That rock is worth $60 a tonne. We stepped out 450 metres into Hole 2—the second hole we drilled—and the results will be coming out in the next week or two. If it continues or gets better, we’ll drill six holes in that area. Last week, we moved the drill 20 miles to the east—still on our property—and we’re drilling in the Motherlode targets right now. We’re going to drill six holes there, then we’re going to move it across the valley about 10 miles and do some holes at the Overlander target. If we have time before Christmas, we’ll do some on the Ket 28 target—west of us 40 miles. So good things are happening there.”

Asked what his overall assessment of the Greenwood project is, Testo replies, “Awesome! This isn’t the sort of project where you’re drilling a one-hole wonder. We’ve have the property for almost four years now. We’ve had geological programs on it; we’ve taken thousands of soil samples and ground samples. I’ve walked every inch of that property. We’re zeroing in on the big one. It’s elephant country where we are.”

Grizzly Discoveries Inc TSXV:GZD announced the discovery of the Dayton gold-copper zone, a bulk-tonnage style low-grade gold-copper zone, at its Greenwood gold project in BC. Results from the first hole of the 2011 drill program revealed 0.25 g/t gold and 0.07% copper over 117 metres (including 0.43 g/t gold and 0.15% copper over 51 metres).

President Brian ‘Griz’ Testo tells ResourceClips.com, “In the last 100 years there’s been about $4 to $5 billion worth of copper, gold and silver taken from the 90-mile area between the US and Canada where Greenwood is located. All the claims at Greenwood were fractured until about 2006. When gold was at $280 to $300 an ounce, some prospectors got this big package together that totalled 235,000 acres. We did a deal with them in 2007, and checked [the claims] out and they were real, so we did a bigger deal with them in 2008. We got all of the ground—all 235,000 contiguous acres—in one package.

“We flew an HLEM [horizontal loop electromagnetic survey] and ended up with 500 targets in 2008. So we drilled a few of them in 2009 and hit some [mineralization]—nothing screaming, but it showed there was gold in the area. We did another little program in 2010 and hit some more and better stuff.

We’re zeroing in on the big one—Brian ‘Griz’ Testo

“When I raised $7 million in April, I gave my geologist $1.2 million, and I said, ‘Get some good drill targets for us for October, when we start drilling.’ We’ve had up to 23 guys on the ground doing ground sampling, MAG, the works, and we came up with these targets. The first target we drilled, the one released on Wednesday, hit 0.43 g/t gold, and 0.15% copper—which aren’t screaming numbers, but it was over 51 metres. That rock is worth $60 a tonne. We stepped out 450 metres into Hole 2—the second hole we drilled—and the results will be coming out in the next week or two. If it continues or gets better, we’ll drill six holes in that area. Last week, we moved the drill 20 miles to the east—still on our property—and we’re drilling in the Motherlode targets right now. We’re going to drill six holes there, then we’re going to move it across the valley about 10 miles and do some holes at the Overlander target. If we have time before Christmas, we’ll do some on the Ket 28 target—west of us 40 miles. So good things are happening there.”

Asked what his overall assessment of the Greenwood project is, Testo replies, “Awesome! This isn’t the sort of project where you’re drilling a one-hole wonder. We’ve have the property for almost four years now. We’ve had geological programs on it; we’ve taken thousands of soil samples and ground samples. I’ve walked every inch of that property. We’re zeroing in on the big one. It’s elephant country where we are.”

The Promise of Grizzly’s Greenwood Gold Project Excites Investors

By Ted Niles

It’s not often that you can say of a man that he knew his future before he knew his name. Brian Testo, President and CEO of Grizzly Discoveries Inc, earned the moniker “Griz” at 14 for his tenacity, but it was at the age of nine that he saw his future in mining. “I was in Grade 4,” Testo relates, “and we were talking about the economies of different countries, and our teacher said something about diamonds in South Africa. There were coal mines throughout Hinton, Alberta, where I grew up, so I asked him if there was any chance of diamonds in Alberta. He said no, no chance; they’re only in South Africa. But I didn’t believe him. So I pursued that.”

Indeed he did. In 2005 Grizzly Diamonds—as the company was then known—acquired three diamond properties in Alberta’s Buffalo Head Hills, approximately 1.6 million hectares. The company also had four BC precious-metals properties—Peak, French, Goat Mine and Silver Bear—over 9,300 hectares.

One could say that such an intense interest in gemstones might not have been the best course given what was looming on the horizon. “It got to the point where in 2008, when the little meltdown came, nobody wanted to talk about diamonds,” Testo reports. He adds, “But that year we got Greenwood, our flagship gold property.”

Greenwood now totals 88,140 hectares. Situated between Grand Forks and Midway, it is easily accessible by road. Around 1900, the area was the largest gold producer in the country, and the Greenwood property is near notable producers—particularly the Motherlode mines that yielded 178,000 ounces gold, 723,000 ounces silver and 80 million pounds copper. And Greenwood is seven kilometres northwest of Kinross Gold’s Buckhorn Mountain Gold Mine in Washington State.

Testo says of the property, “We took an old gold camp which was very underexplored, and we flew some new mags on it about a year and a half ago. When we got the data back, there were 500 conductors. So we’ve been drilling some of those, as well as some old drill targets. So far, we still have 400 conductors we haven’t chased down. There are six distinct areas in Greenwood, and we have shown in the first three that there’s a huge low-grade system there.”

Grizzly has completed three drill campaigns at Greenwood, and it does not yet have an NI 43-101 resource estimate. Assays of September 13, 2010, included 0.75 grams per tonne gold over 42 metres (including 1 g/t over 30 metres). The most recent assays, released February 7, include 0.21 g/t gold over 111.5 metres (including 1.19 g/t over 10.4 metres). Testo comments, “We’ve got this huge intersection, and we’ll hit high grade between that. We’ve just got to find the high grade. I tell people that we’re one hole away from a major discovery. On our next drill hole we could hit the heart of the system, or it might take 10 or 20. We’ve got enough smoke there to know there’s a fire.”

The market has of late shared Testo’s confidence. Following its February 7 press release, Grizzly’s share price shot up from $0.30 to, at press time, $0.52. The company has $1.2 million on hand, enough “to do a small program in May or June,” but he hopes to raise an additional $3 million to $5 million this spring for “a proper two-year drilling program. That’s my goal for Greenwood, and I think we can attain that.” Towards that end Testo reports that Grizzly Discoveries has applied for a listing on the OTCQX.

Of Grizzly’s other precious metals properties in BC, the Peak Property is the most promising, hosting rock that is stratigraphically similar to Barrick Gold’s Eskay Creek Mine. Testo remarks, “If I could raise more money, I’d work on it. But it’s a higher risk property than Greenwood.” The company has also taken a considerable interest in Alberta potash. Anyone familiar with the names of BHP Billiton and Potash Corp knows this is an increasingly profitable commodity. Grizzly has staked roughly 950,000 hectares near Lloydminster and Medicine Hat on the border and hopes to bring some of Saskatchewan’s potash success to Alberta.

“Griz” has not forsaken his diamonds, but Greenwood remains his priority. He concludes, “I’ve never had a brokered placement. I’ve always done friends and family. We have a huge vested interest in making this thing work. And we only have 34 million shares. Fully diluted, we’d be at about 38 million to 40 million and have another $3 million to $4 million in the bank. I’d raised most of the money before the crash north of a dollar. I’ve done a couple of small placements since then to keep rocking and rolling, but I’m going to do a bigger placement at a higher price, and things are going to happen.”